


Balmora Blue

by Orcbait (EmpressofMankind)



Series: Season of the Dragon [6]
Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls Online
Genre: Comedy, Don't snort the damn moonsugar, F/M, LGBTQ Character, Polyamory, Recreational Drug Use, Sassy, no one is straight
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-04-06 05:36:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19056280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmpressofMankind/pseuds/Orcbait
Summary: There are many things Abnur Tharn shouldn't be doing at his age, and no doubt strange Bosmer with mysterious snortable powders is high on that list. Fortunately, this story is full of responsible adults making well-informed life choices.





	Balmora Blue

**Author's Note:**

> Technically this is chapter 2; as chapter 1 is meant to describe the dumbass situation that resulted in Ramira and Abnur meeting. I will write chapter 1 at some point. Probably.

The light touch stirred Abnur Tharn from what may just as well have been the sleep of the dead. It was familiar and immediate, yet felt as if it came from a great distance. He struggled to wake and when he did, the world was blurry and dominated by muscle pain and a throbbing headache. He opened his eyes with effort to a heart-shaped face and eyes squinted with quiet amusement. He knew they were brown, even though the astral projection had rendered her entirely in purple.  
  
“Welcome back to the lands of the mostly sober, my love,” Pulasia Tharn said, an amused smile playing around her lips. She sat on the edge of the bed, gazing down at him. He reached up to her face but his fingertips went right through her cheek. She touched her hand to his and he could almost feel it.  
  
“Can you recall anything at all?” she followed up, a note of concern in her tone, maybe. She tucked a bang of grey hair that had fallen loose from her braid behind her ear. A small frown crunched the bridge of her nose.  
  
Abnur’s face screwed up as he tried to force his mind into coherence. It refused. Shreds of memories surfaced, confused and clearly out of order. The press of another body, warm and solid. The shimmer of diaphanous cloth. Soft pecks and hard kisses. The sharp burn of something that probably shouldn’t be inhaled. One small Bosmer with large green eyes and the dumbest look he’d seen on a face all week. He closed his eyes and pressed his palm against his forehead. “She thought I was the clerk.”  
  
“A clerk?” Pulasia chuckled, undoubtedly imagining it.  
  
“Mages’ Guild.” Abnur’s frown creased deeper as he tried to wring details from his mind. “I was minding my own business. Anvina’s ‘Planar Simulacrum’. A formula I needed.” He rubbed his palm in slow circles across his brow. The headache lingered. As did the weary ache in what seemed like every inch of his body. Weight compacted his chest, leaving his breathing shallow in a decidedly unhealthy way. “Pigments. She paints. I think. She thought I was the clerk.”  
  
“You do have the grouchy demeanour of a recalcitrant alchemist when you’re studying,” Pulasia teased. He opened one eye and gave her a look that deepened her smile with fondness. She was glad he seemed all right. In pain, perhaps, but that was his own damn fault.  
  
Abnur rubbed his face. “Tell me I haven’t been robbed blind.”  
  
“As much as you’d have deserved that,” Pulasia replied, her smile twitching. “That doesn’t appear to be the case.” Abnur managed to force his eyes open to look at her. Surprise almost made it through his pained frown. “She’s still here,” Pulasia added with a nod of her head and her amusement plain in her tone.  
  
It was only then that he noticed that the weight on his chest wasn’t some after effect of a poorly chosen drink but the little Bosmer, curled up like a cat might. She was asleep, the Elder Council pendant he wore around his neck clutched in her fist. He realised that was all he was wearing. Abnur dropped his head back to the pillow and rolled his eyes up at the ceiling. Pulasia laughed.  
  
“You are the most intelligent person I know, Abe,” Pulasia remarked between chuckles. “But, some times, you can be very foolish.”  
  
Abnur stared at the wooden ceiling. She wasn’t wrong. “I was perfectly happy, minding my own business.”  
  
“Until she started badgering you about pigment prices?” Pulasia asked, her smile twitching still.   
  
He glanced at her from the corners of his eyes. “She was very persistent.”  
  
“I am sure you objected terribly much, my love,” she chuckled as she leaned down to ghost a kiss against his lips. She tried to keep her face straight but couldn’t. She knew exactly what he was like when ruffled out of his studies: rumpled, flustered and adorable. “Some of us have a soft spot for grumpy alchemists.”  
  
Abnur reached for his forehead again. “Judging by the potency of that inhalant, she clearly doesn’t need one.”  
  
Pulasia’s smile was replaced by a frown. “You think she made it herself?”  
  
“I don’t see why not, artists generally know their way around the herb cabinet,” Abnur answered. He’d closed his eyes. “Perhaps, a Bosmer one, twice so.”  
  
Pulasia glanced at the Bosmer, still soundly asleep. She’d woken a few times and hadn’t seemed the worse for wear, returning to her perch each time.  
  
Abnur pursed his lips. “I didn’t think it would hit me as hard as it did.” He squinted his eyes against the headache. “She’s smaller and lighter than me.”  
  
“And, evidently, used to it.” Pulasia shook her head. “It contained dry panned skooma.”  
  
Abnur’s frown creased deeper. The moon sugar derived narcotic was illegal in the Empire. “How long was I out?”  
  
“Longer than I liked,” Pulasia answered. She was holding his hand. She wasn’t in the habit of worrying, her husband was well able to handle himself.  It wasn’t particularly unusual for him to forget to touch base when buried in research, though she could hardly throw stones in that regard. She hadn’t made it well into her sixth decade and through several wars by letting things disturb her humours. However, this time something had nagged. Wars and politics alike had taught her to know better than question her gut. And so she’d projected into his general vicinity and found him here, thoroughly out of it. Drink and good company could do that, and she wouldn’t have thought any more of it, hadn’t she spotted the crumpled brown paper and the residual crystals winking in the dim morning light. And just like that, worry had jumped her like a cut-throat in the night. There were a great many things one shouldn’t inhale and moon sugar probably topped that list. She was glad he was finally awake, coherent, and returning to himself.  
  
“How’s the headache?” she asked. There was something in her voice that made him open his eyes again. A little frown creased her nose bridge. She’d been worried.  
  
“Splitting, but I’ve had worse,” he answered as he gave her translucent hand a light squeeze. She felt it, and a faint smile returned to her face. “I feel like I’ve been drawn save for quartered.”  
  
“I am not at all sure those muscle aches are a result of the moon sugar,” Pulasia teased, her smile creeping up to her eyes.    
  
“I can tell you, the accounts of unlikely acrobatics by Bosmer are probably not a lie,” Abnur returned. He was glad to see the edge of concern smooth from her face.  
  
A little snort of amusement left her at his words. “A brave sacrifice for science.”  
  
“Hm, I am not unwilling to share my discovery, when I return,” he replied, that self-satisfied smile tugging at the corners of his lips.  
  
“Are you certain you can limp back here?” she shot right back and his smile turned wry at that. “My husband is a fool and he should rest before he wrecks himself even further,” she added, her tone gentle but also brooking no argument. “I am too young to be a widow and, anyway, they’ll come for me if you keel over.”  
  
“You’d inherit a lot of money,” Abnur remarked, amused.  
  
“At the price of losing the only intelligent company in all of Cyrodiil?” she replied with a little grin, shaking her head. “Not worth it.”  
  
“Only all of Cyrodiil?” Abnur crooked an eyebrow.  
  
“Oh, hush,” Pulasia mused. She smiled and leaned down to kiss him. He only just felt the faint brush of her lips against his. “Rest, you complete mooncalf.”

**Author's Note:**

> A lot of time and hard work went into the creation and publication of this story and as such, it is very dear to me. I would love to hear what you thought of it! And please, share this story freely but credit me and link back to me. Thank you!


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